Russian scientist Mikhail Blagosklonny is among the leading proponents for the use of the cancer drug Rapamycin to treat age-related diseases and potentially slow the aging process. A graduate of First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg. Blagosklonny has an M.D. in internal medicine as well as a PhD in cardiology and experimental medicine. He has worked at New York State Medical College as an associate professor of medicine and spent 7 years at Orday Research Institute as a senior scientist. Since 2009 he’s been a Roswell Park Cancer Institute professor of oncology.The research interests of Mikhail Blagosklonny include cancer, targeted cancer therapies that limit damage to normal cells, anti-aging drugs and the mechanisms that underlie aging. In the early 2000s, while working on cancer treatments, he realized the same qualities of rapamycin that made it effective at slowing tumor growth could make it useful in helping to slow the aging process. Blagosklonny formulated a hypothesis about TOR signaling’s possible role in aging and cancer. He then proposed using rapamycin as a treatment for life extension. Blagosklonny was so convinced of rapamycin’s safety and potential, he began taking it himself.

When asked if taking rapmycin is dangerous because it lacks FDA approval for human trial’s, Blagosklonny says smoking, overeating and driving without a seatbelt are more dangerous. Since the potent antifungal compound was found in Easter Island, it has been shown to work on cell biology to prolong life at a fundamental level. Rapamycin inhibits a vital cellular pathway that regulates growth and metabolism. Studies have shown rapamycin increased the life span of male mice by 9% and female mice by 14%.Dr. Mikhail Blagosklonny continues to research the connection between aging and cancer and how rapamycin can impact both. His oncology research and his role as a professor have been very helpful in the oncology field. Not only does it enable him to find and share groundbreaking information, but Dr. Blagosklonny also serves as an inspiration to both his students and his peers. His expertise and the direction of his research will have an influence on others in the future as they seek to expand on the work that he has so bravely championed.

One of the concerns people have about rapamycin is about it suppressing the immune system. However, in a vindication of Dr. Blagosklonny’s hypothesis, the results of a recent study published in Science Translational Medicine shows everolimus, a rapamycine derivative, improves elderly patients immune response when limited doses are administered. According to the study, rapamycine enhanced immune response of patients 65 and older and boosted the flu vaccine’s efficacy. Rapamycine didn’t suppress the immune response, it modulated it.Rapamycin also reverses cardiac aging, reduces age-related bone loss and chronic inflammation and reverses Alzheimer’s disease when fed to mice. Dr. Blagosklonny says rapamycin has been used for over 15 years with less serious side effects than aspirin. He says when he takes rapamycin, it improves the way he feels much the same way exercise does.